Generally, there are two typical medications of prescribing granulated medicines toward within lungs of an asthmatic patient, that is, one being a medication that the granulated medicines are inhaled by way of a liquid aerosol atomizer, and the other being an inhalation treatment that very fine granular medicines encapsulated in a granular-medicine accommodation chamber or a capsule, such as granules each having a particle diameter ranging from 5 .mu.m to 10 .mu.m, are inhaled by breaking through the granular-medicine accommodation chamber or the capsule. Of these medications for an asthmatic patient, an inhalant medicator, used for the latter inhalation treatment where encapsulated granulated medicines are inhaled, has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-313599.
The conventional inhalant medicator disclosed in the Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-313599 is generally comprised of a medicator body equipped at one axial end with a capsule housing hole (a granular medicine accommodation chamber) and at the other axial end with an inhalant port used for inhalation of granular medicines, an inflow air passageway having an axial inflow passage extending in the axial direction of the medicator body and a pin insertion hole extending in a radial direction of the medicator body for communicating the capsule housing hole with the atmosphere, an outflow air passageway having an outflow passage extending in the axial direction of the medicator body and a pin insertion hole extending in the radial direction of the medicator body for communicating the capsule housing hole with the inhalant port, and a pricking tool having pins insertable toward the capsule through the respective pin insertion holes for breaking through the capsule accommodated in the capsule housing hole. The inflow and outflow air passageways are provided for supplying the granular medicines encapsulated in the capsule into the inhalant port, while dispersing the granular medicines in the capsule by air flow flowing through the interior of the capsule.
In conventional inhalant medicators, when prescribing granulated medicines into the lungs of a patient, a capsule filled with the granulated medicines is, first of all, installed in a capsule housing hole. Then, through holes are pricked in the capsule by means of a pricking tool, with the result that the inflow side of the medicator body is communicated through the through holes pricked in the capsule with the outflow side, that is, the outflow air passageway and the inhalant port. Under this condition, when the patient draws his or her breath while taking the inhalant port in his or her mouth, the granular medicines stored in the capsule housing hole can be discharged into the inhalant port by way of the air flow sucked in the atmosphere side and then flowing through the inflow air passageway. In this manner, the granular medicines, flowing out of the capsule, could be inhaled into the lungs of the patient.
As discussed above, in the conventional inhalant medicators, granular medicines, stored in a capsule housing hole, are diffused or agitated by way of fluid flow of air flowing via the inflow air passageway into the capsule housing hole. However, during medication with a granular medicine having a strong condensation property (bad dispersion), or a powdered medicine having a greatly increased tendency to be charged with static electricity, or a powdered medicine containing oil content, or the like, there is a problem of unstable dispersion of the granular or powdered medicine from being inhaled toward within the lungs of the patient stably and satisfactorily at all times where medications are repeatedly made with medicines of different physical properties. In case of the use of granular or powdered medicines having the physical properties set out above, there is a possibility that a lump of granular or powdered medicines tend to be dropped in the oral cavity or the mouth of the patient during the inhalation without sufficient dispersion, thus preventing medical prescription of a specified amount of granulated or powdered medicines into the patient' lungs. This lowers medical benefits of the granulated or powdered medicines.
It is, therefore, in view of the previously-described disadvantages of the prior art, an object of the present invention to provide an inhalant medicator which is capable of prescribing a specified amount of granular or powdered medicines stored in a capsule or a medicator body toward within lungs of a patient by widely dispersing and micronizing the granular or powdered medicines.